HO IV TO PRESERVE FOXES 77 



considerable, though indirect, pecuniary contribution 

 to the hunt. 



As to the presence of foxes in pheasant-coverts 

 at the time of the shoot, no doubt the fox is often 

 a spoil-sport, but his presence there is partly the 

 fault of half-hearted preserving. The owner and his 

 keeper do not shoot foxes, but they keep hounds out 

 of the coverts until after these have been shot through. 

 The keeper feeds the foxes, which become fat and lazy 

 and do not readily leave their haunts. It does no harm 

 to draw large woods up to ten days or a fortnight 

 before they are shot. Indeed it does good, for birds 

 fed in a covert scarcely ever fly far except to go 

 to roost, and the hounds move them but do not 

 drive them away. The birds cannot know much 

 country or fly far. The case, no doubt, is different in 

 a small shooting bounded by the fields of pot-hunting 

 neighbours. But in large coverts with hand-reared 

 pheasants it may be considered certain that drawing 

 the woods and driving out the foxes is on the whole, 

 to say the least, no disadvantage to the owner and 

 does not in any appreciable degree, if at all, diminish 

 the bag. 



One fact, however, remains, and this is that no 

 man can preserve foxes unless he allows his coverts 

 to be regularly hunted. The hounds must kill off 



